During the drive to the airport, Gary kept thinking about Sun Marie, trying to figure out what she could possibly be hiding. He wanted to talk with Ji Hyo about it, but he didn’t want her to be scared again.

“I’m sorry I laughed at you last night,” Gary said.

“Hmm?” Ji Hyo was lost in her thoughts again.

“When we were in the hotel room, out on the balcony, and you were all scared.” He breathed in deeply. “I shouldn’t have laughed.”

Ji Hyo stared out the window. “It’s fine, Gary-ah,” she said.

He looked over at her and then back at the road ahead. “That swing moving like that… you know it was probably just the wind, right?”

She looked at him and nodded.

By the time they got to the airport, Gary had decided that whatever secret Sun Marie was guarding was probably harmless, a kid’s game maybe. He shrugged it off.

But while Gary had been downplaying his fears during the drive to the airport, Ji Hyo’s worries about Jong Kook had only intensified. The more she had thought about it, the more she wanted to stay with Jong Kook, to take care of him for a few days and make sure that he would be okay. How could she go back to Korea and continue planning her wedding while Jong Kook was suffering? But after they had returned the rental car and dragged their luggage into the airport, she realized that staying behind wasn’t an option.

That is, until they reached the airport security checkpoint. As Gary took off his shoes and emptied his pockets of any loose change, dumping the items into the bin to send down the conveyer on the security line, Ji Hyo began taking off her jewelry and noticed then that she wasn’t wearing her ring. She had forgotten to take it back from Sun Marie.

“Gary-ah!” Ji Hyo said, holding out her bare ring finger for him to see.

A second of confusion passed over Gary’s face until he realized, just as Ji Hyo had, that Sun Marie still had the engagement ring. He sighed and shook his head. “Aish, I shouldn’t have rushed you out of there.”

“I can go back,” Ji Hyo said.

“We don’t have time,” Gary said. “We’ll miss our flight.”

“Then you go,” she said. “I’ll catch the next one.”

Gary looked at her, confused. “You want me to leave without you?”

She felt bad then and held his hands, but she didn’t know what to say. How could she explain to Gary that she wanted to stay with Jong Kook without hurting Gary’s feelings or making him feel threatened?

Gary tilted his head slightly, studying Ji Hyo’s face. She was still very much a mystery to him. There were so many times when she would wear that mong face, like she was now, and he would have no idea what she was thinking. He loved that face, but he yearned to know her like she knew him. There was that separation between them. Whereas he poured out his soul on paper for the world to see, for her to see, each of his songs portraying his real feelings, she was an actress, hiding her real self in her roles. He thought about that often, how open he was as compared to her. And now, they faced separation again. She was the girl who wanted to stay; he was the man who wanted to leave.

But Ji Hyo didn’t want to stay with Gary; she wanted to stay with Jong Kook. And Gary didn’t want to leave without her. “I’ll come with you,” he said. “We’ll trade in our tickets together for the next flight. Or we can leave now and just have the ring mailed to us.”

Ji Hyo shook her head. “I thought about this,” she said. “I think he needs someone there for a while, a friend.”

Gary’s face was weighed down in sadness. “So, you were never planning on catching the next flight? You had already planned on staying?” He turned away from her briefly, looking behind them to the people moving ahead on the security line. And then he looked back at her, searching her face, not wanting to know the answer to his next question. “Did you purposely leave your ring there?”

“Aniyo, Gary-ah!” She held his hand tighter. “I swear I didn’t.”

He didn’t know what to think.

Ji Hyo was not one for public displays of affection, but she kissed him then, a soft kiss. “He’s our friend, Gary-ah. And he’s hurting.” She held her hand to the side of his face. They shared a brief quiet moment until she softly said, “I’m sorry. Saranghae, but I need to stay.” 

During the cab ride back to Jong Kook’s home, Ji Hyo tried to sort out her feelings. She loved Gary. But something was pulling her toward Jong Kook. She had felt, for years, like she and Jong Kook were two magnets wanting to connect but always separated by other forces. She knew that Jong Kook felt it, too – it was in the small moments, the way he cared for her, the way he loo